Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins ended 2023 on a high note, how can they keep it going in 2024?

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

The Pittsburgh Penguins are back in action on Tuesday night against the Washington Capitals but Hunter and Pat have other things to attend to first. They first recap the Penguins' win over the Blues and how they could play out defensively in line for a win. Before discussing Evgeni Malkin's recent hot stretch, they also look at how Drew O'Connor continues to come alive in the last week and how that's paid major dividends for the team. After that, they look at Tristan Jarry's sharp game before dissecting the win over the Islanders. They look at how this was a massive 2 points as they continue to fight for their playoff lives and how Alex Nedeljkovic plays like one of the best goalies in the league. They also analyze how the Penguins got timely goals from their depth in this one and how they didn't have to rely on their stars. Finally, they preview Tuesday's massive game against the Washington Capitals.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!SleeperDownload the Sleeper App and use promo code LOCKEDONNHL to get up to a $100 match on your first deposit. Terms and conditions apply. See Sleeper’s Terms of Use for details.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are the Pittsburgh Penguins back? Well, Pat and I are going to discuss that, plus a lot more on this edition of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

I'm one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes. You can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, joined by the best host in the world, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Send him for Wet. And you can follow the shows, Twitter, at L.O. underscore Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this, your first lesson slash watch of the day. We are free and available on all platforms.

And finally, today's episode is brought to you by GameTime, down the GameTime app, crane account and use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase. Happy New Year, everyone. It's 2024. Hope you all listening slash watching. had a very safe and healthy, happy new year over the weekend. And the Penguins will ring in the new year with a massive game against the Washington

Capitals tonight. Pat and I are going to preview that game a little later on in this episode. But first, is this team backpack? Because they had two very convincing wins over the weekend. First one against the St. Louis Blues and the second one against the New York Islanders. Let's start with the game against the Blues. I wasn't able to watch most of this game live because I was at a wedding. I had three weddings to go to in 2020, which is pretty weird because I don't usually go to that many weddings unless it's just for family members, but had a lot of my friends that got married this past year.

But I was able to go back, watch a lot of the film from this game. And the biggest thing that stood out to me was how well the Penguins played defensively. They only gave up six high danger chances at five on five in that game. And they didn't really give up any on-man rushes. They also got the depth scoring. Tristan Jari was fantastic. that was the type of game that you needed to play against a team that was tired because you knew the Blues weren't going to probably bring their A game considering they were on the second half of a back-to-back. They had just played the Colorado Avalanche a night before.

And oh, yeah, by the way, they were traveling for this game to Pittsburgh. But I really liked how the Penguins played in this game. Was it great? No. Did they play bad also, though? But you really shouldn't care how the wins come by when you are where you are in the standings right now and you're fighting for your playoff lives. That was a big win considering they got the goaltending. They played well in their own zone.

They got the depth scoring. They got the scoring from the stars. It was all in all just a really good win for a team that continues to need to bank points. Right. And that's the biggest thing right now is the fact that they're putting wins together and they're not playing. I don't want to say they're playing poorly, but they're not playing great hockey. They're not on their A game, I think. No.

And they're doing this without the services of Brian Rust. and there's there's a team right now that's starting to figure it out as they go into 24 and I liked what you said about the way they played defensively against the blues because if you remember we talked about it on the preview show that the last time they played against the blues they were damn near careless defensively a lot of bad play in the defensive zone positionally they gave up odd man rush after odd man rush after odd man rush and then you go to Saturday night and they buttoned it up very well defensively. And we're going to talk about this overall for the weekend as a whole.

But there wasn't a ton of the big guys stepping up this weekend. This was a lot. This was largely thanks to the depth on this team that the penguins came away with four points over the weekend and now find themselves one point out of a playoff spot. Yeah. And just going back to what you were saying defensively, I mean, the penguins that only gave up two high danger chances in the first two periods. of that game. You knew the blues were going to push back a little bit heading into the third

because the penguins had the lead. And sometimes the penguins definitely do sit back with the lead, let's say that. And the Blues had four high-hanger chances in the third period. But overall, again, I don't really see many Ottoman rushes. I didn't really see the penguins giving up a lot of chances from in-tight. They made Tristan Jari's job pretty easy while also having him make a couple of really nice saves throughout that game. The two goals of the blues scored, they weren't his fault at all. It was obviously funny that Kisperi Kaffin gets on the score sheet against his former team.

But the Robert Thomas school, I saw some people complaining about that. That was just a nice play. And I know the Penguins penalty has been really good this year. I know the Blue's power play has been very bad this year, but sometimes you guys just tip your cap to them, the opposition, excuse me, when they just make a nice play,

even though that's a struggling unit. But when you also have a game where, for example, you have Drew Connor score. And that was a beautiful one-timer from a, awesome feed from Havgeny Malkin. Gino has really been stepping up over the last week. And I'll continue to say the same about Drew O'Connor, man. These last three to four games, ever since that auto game,

he's turned into a completely different player and is playing like one of their best depth options. This is how I wanted him to start the season. And it's nice that he's playing at this level now. But man, if he would have started the season like this, he probably already have double-digit goals by now, to be honest. But last week and change, he's really coming to his own. And it's been nice to see me. or at least again on that Balkan pass to open the scoring against the blues was

chef's kiss. Yeah, very similar to what I was saying in the last couple weeks about Pustin and where that's the kind of goal you score when you're feeling it. That's the kind of goal you score when you have confidence and know you can be playing with the top guys. But then you look at the rest of this blues game and you get points for you get a huge goal from Jeff Carter, which is assisted by Jansen Harkins. I'll say this, my friends.

Jeff Carter is actually playing decent hockey right now. I'm, everyone knows on me on this show. I'm not a big Jeff Carter fan. I think he's been really bad for the last year, year and a half. These last several games, though, I actually think Jeff Carter has been fine. Hopefully he can continue this, but, and I know, it's a low bar, people, but he's actually been fine. As you said, that was a massive goal where the Penguins really needed one late in that game.

But go ahead with your thought. It's a case study in professionalism for Jeff Carter because he very easily, given that he is, and I've said it on the show before, I don't think he would get in, but somebody who would be discussed when it comes post career to the Hall of Fame just because of how good of a school scorer he was. But he could have very easily thrown it in the tank and pouted and been angry that he got healthy scratch. But instead he was a professional about it and went to work. And he's come back and, you know, it seems like any time he scores a goal at this point, it's a big goal. So if nothing else, the guy's a gamer.

But all in all, you look at that Blues game and you just see a team that is figuring it out. You see a team that they may not be at their best, and we're going to get into it here next. Different story on Sunday against the New York Islanders. So I really like where the arrow is pointing for this team right now. Once they get Brian Rust back, I think the sky is the limit and they can really start going on a run here to start the new year and solidify themselves as a postseason team going down the stretch run.

And yeah, I mean, we might have Ryan Russ come back as soon as tonight against the Capitol. He can come off with LTIR. He's been practicing with the team, taking contact. We'll have to see if he participates in the morning he skate today. But I just want to go back to something earlier that I talked about with Evgeny Malkin, getting a goal against the Blues. He's really finding his game as of late, which is massive for this team. He was in a bit of a rut for a decent amount of November. Even into December, I thought as well, he just wasn't playing at a level that I thought we were going to see from him for most of the year.

But that's what happens sometimes when, again, a star player gets into his high 30. But the last couple weeks of December, he started to come out of it a little bit. Ever since that Ottawa game, I feel like for sure, he's played at a level that we saw him play out in October. And it's been massive because he's been one of the best players on the ice. And then for Cindy Crosby, he gets his 20th of the year. We're not even halfway through the season. This guy has 20 goals.

So a great game from 87 and 71 yet again. Gino's playing like Gino again. He's playing very decisively. He is a menace in the offensive zone. he's accountable in the defensive zone he's going to the net to score dirty goals if he has to and he's just generally engaged in the play and i'm not hinting towards a enigmatic russian take here where people say he doesn't care and is disinterested it's just you know when gino's at his best he is a menace in all three zones and he's engaged in every part of the play so

we have been seeing that for the last couple of weeks and for the penguin's goal to get back to the postseason, that's only a positive. I said it last week on the show. When he is galloping like this, he's puck hunting on the ice. And you can see it virtually every shift that he's out there. He wants the puck on his stick, every single shift. And he's playing outstanding hockey. We'll see if he can continue that into this game against the capitals tonight.

But before we get to that, Pat and I have to discuss the Islanders win on New Year's even, how big of a win that was for the Penguins. But before we discussed that, we got to tell you all about game time. You shouldn't have to worry when you're buying tickets to your next big event. Game time is the fastest and easiest way to buy tickets for all the sports, music, comedy, and theater events near you. With killer last minute deals, all in prices, views from receipt and their best price guarantee, game time takes the guesswork out of buying tickets.

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Again, creating account and redeem code locked on for $20 off. Download game time delay. Last minute tickets lowest price guarantee. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Lockdown Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, join on my host Patrick Dam. So, the Penguins had not one win this past weekend, but two wins. They're able to sweep this, I guess, many home and home, if you want to call it that, against the Islanders and ensure at least a season series split against the Islanders

after getting swept by them last year. And I also like the way the Penguins played in this one. Were they a little worse defensively? Sure. But that's where Alex Nadelcovich comes in. He was on one during this game. It continues his ridiculous start to the season. top 20 and goal state above expected.

He has over a 925 save percentage this season. He made save after save after save. There was that one sequence in the first period where it looked like the Islanders were probably going to score three times on him. And he's just diving right, dive and left, even making a save with his mask off for God's sake. And I was like, what is going on with this guy? He was the Penguins MVP, I thought, in this game.

Again, I know the Penguins, I don't think they played bad. They still play well enough to win. But they do not even come close to winning that game without the services of Alex Delkovich. What a start from him. And it's funny, I thought Tristan Jari was going to get that game. We said going into the weekend. I thought they were going to go the opposite.

But they have all the trust in the world into Adelkovich right now. And this tandem continues to be one of the best in the league. It's a legitimate strength. I am going to disagree with you a little bit, though. on the on the on the nidalkovich part not at all that that spot on without him they probably do not win that game but putting aside the the placement in the standings in the direction these two teams are heading sunday was a heavyweight fight with just two fighters trading punches because there would be three four minute stretches where the islanders controlled the puck in the penguin zone and looked

like they were threatening and then it was the same thing for the penguins for multiple minutes at a time where the Penguins forecheck and attack in the offensive zone was absolutely relentless. And this was the kind of game that you want to see the Penguins win, where it's a game that they establish their forecheck quite often. They play pretty well. They survive in the defensive zone. They get big saves from their goalie, and then they come out victorious. Because, again, if they're playing a lesser goalie than, then why am I?

his name escaping me here. Hunter, help me out here, buddy. Ilya Seroken. There we go. For some reason, I wanted to say Samsonov. Maybe it's because he just got waived. Elias Seroken is a top five goalie in the league, sir. Listen, brain fart happens. New Year. New Year's Eve still probably still hungover. But point I'm making is if they're playing a game against any other goalie, they probably score four or five in this game, but they played an elite goaltender who was able to keep

this one close. So overall, like, I think the Penguins, actually played better against the Islanders than they did against the Blues. They just ran into a better goalie and a team that's just better defensively. I thought the Penguins were a little worse defensively against the Islanders compared to the Blues. I mean, they gave up 15 high-d-d-d-danger chances against the Islanders. But I will say the one part defensively that I liked about the Penguins in this game, again, no odd man rushes.

I think you can count the number of odd-man rushes the Penguins gave up in these two games combined on one hand. I'm not joking when I say that. I thought the penguins were very responsible with the puck on their stick. They weren't making too many aggressive pinches in their own zone leading to on-man rushes. They were taking care of the puck even in the neutral zone at the red line, all that good stuff. But I do you the penguins were a little bit lackluster at times in their own zone. Adolkovich had to bail them out at times.

But, hey, when you have a goalie that's playing that well, you can have that happen at times. And another big thing I liked about the penguins in this game, they didn't get any scoring from their top players. two goals from Lars Eller and one goal from Nootari. We haven't been able to say it that often this year where the Penguins won a game pack because their depth scores scored, not because their top player scored. Because it feels like the top players score every game at this point, but they didn't in this one. And sometimes you need those types of games where your star players just don't have it. It was nice to see Eller continue his really strong season and also see Nola Chari get back on the score.

I think ever since Atari came back from injury, he's been playing a bit better. Nice to see him get rewarded with a good goal in this one. I've liked his game a lot since he returned from injury. He has looked very much like he was supposed to when they acquired him this offseason. So that's a net positive for this team. What did I say last week, though? You knew exactly how this Islander's team wanted to start this game and how they were going to try to play this game.

They were going to try to rip you down into the muck in the mud and what happens off basically the opening face-off is a fight between Matt Martin and John Ludwig. If you discussed that for a second, what the hell was that? But what the hell is that? But that's what I'm getting to is that this happens. And good for Ludwig answering the bell because you know that had, because you know how this stupid sport is. If nobody would have answered Matt Martin's challenge the fight,

they would have been running around, slashing, hackin, throwing dirty hits. So Ludwig just takes the bullet, gets in the fight, and gets it out of the way. But instead of allowing the islanders to use that as a galvanizing moment, the penguins hold their ground for a minute or two, and then Lars Eller goes in and scores on an odd man rush, and the penguins are up one nothing, and it's a proverbial middle finger to the islanders to say,

okay, you guys think that your fight off the opening face off is going to intimidate us. No, we're just going to beat you again. That's all Matt Martin does at this point. He just fights people. He tries to run people into the boards. He doesn't contribute anything. anything offensively on a nightly basis. So he just resorts to fighting for some reason.

He's not a good player anymore. He's been doing that for years. I just laughed when I saw that because I'm like, that's what you want to do to start a game. You want to fight someone after you got your butts kicked seven nothing just a few nights ago? Okay, sure. The Penguins will just go out there and win that game. And finally, I do like how the Penguins were able to defend that lead in the third period.

Did it get a bit dicey at times? Sure. And yes, I had a little PTSD coming in because the Penguins had a two-goal lead with less than seven minutes to go. and you know me if you've been listening to this show for a while. One of the biggest losses that I hated from last season was when the Penguins had a two-gole lead against the Islanders with less than six minutes left,

and the Islanders tied it in the final minute and then won the game in overtime. And funny enough, the Islanders almost tied it in the final minute. Anders Lee had a glorious chance, but Jake Gensel had a really, did a really nice job, excuse me, to tie him up to have that attempt go wide. But overall, that was the play of the game to me right there. the because when you saw it in real time,

it looked like Lee miffed it and just missed the net. That's what I thought too. Because Phil Bork was the same way on the broadcast, which by the way, he has been fantastic as a TV player, Keller commentator, by the way. But he was like, how did Lee miss that? That's unbelievable. And then you go back and see the overhead view.

And Gensel was the reason he missed it with an incredible defensive play. Exactly. Because usually Anders Lee, he's one of the best net front presences in the league. He doesn't miss chances like that. Yeah, he never misses that. Even though he's a bit older now and he's not as good of a player as he used to be, he will still bury that chance 10 out of 10 times. And he's a Penguins killer.

So when I saw that, I was like, oh, my God, it looks like it's going to go in. But then you see that we play just a great defensive play from Jake Gensel overall there. And that is a sign of a team that's starting to figure it out and starting to feel themselves a little bit. because when guys like Jake Gensel are committing that much and playing that well in all three zones, this is a team that knows what it has to do to win. And this is a team that is showing you that they're going to do what it takes to win. So we're going to get into it here in a minute, but they have a huge chance to build on that tonight. Right.

And a lot of these penguins wins. They're not flashy. There's not all these Harlem Globetrotter plays, but they're banking points. They're seven and one in one. Their last nine, the underlines are getting a bit better. The five-on-five play has been really solid for the last several weeks. The penalty kill has been great. Even the power play woke up a little bit at times this weekend.

They continue to get good goal-tending. The depth scoring is really stepping up a lot more as of late. Heck, Jansen Harkins, back-to-back games with a point. Congratulations to him. This is a team that's slowly starting to figure it out. And you bank those four points against the Islanders. You won't see them again until February. All of a sudden, and we'll talk about the capels in just a second,

but I'll tease this for the final segment. If you can get a regulation win against Washington tonight, all of a sudden, you're two points clear of them, and you're potentially only one point behind the flyers for third in the division. Right now, the Penguins are only four points at a second. That is how tight this division is right now. But they're back in the race. That's what you wanted to end.

You wanted this team back in the race. And sure enough, they are fully in it heading into 2024. and they will have their first game of the new year against the capitals tonight. Pat and I are going to preview that game. But before we get to that, we got to tell you all about Fandle. NFL regular season is wrapping up, but there's still time to get in on the action with Fandle, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get 150 in bonus bets.

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All right. We're back here on this episode of the Lockdown on Penguins podcast. I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes. Join me, my host, Power for Damp, of course. Thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch of the day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcast. So Penguins Capitals comes your way. night at 730. Reminder to everyone, this is a ESPN plus slash Hulu exclusive game. So if you don't have

those two, you can just sign up for account or you can just maybe do a free trial or something like that. But this is a big one, man. This feels almost like a mini playoff game to start the new year. Both teams have 40 points in this daynings right now. The penguins are the hotter team of the two Penguins, winners of three in a row, seven and one and one in their last nine. The Capitals losers are four in a row. And a team that I feel like is starting to come down to earn. a little bit. I am not a believer in the capitals this year. I think this is a team that's just been getting really good goaltending. Dylan Strone's having a good year. And there's really not much else to that team right now because Alex Ovechkin hasn't been that good. They're banged up.

Backstrom, I don't even think he's going to play again this year. He may not have him play again, which just stinks because he's one of the best players in this generation. But I am just really not that big of a believer in this team. Their underlines are also not impressive at all. and heading into this game, the capitals are not going to have the services of Charlie Lingren, who has been better than Darcy Kemper this year. It's funny. When him and Hunter Shepard have started, who's their third string goalie, they have a well above 500 record.

But when Darcy Kemper starts, their record is not as good because his same percentage is below 900. They are not getting the return on the investment on that deal. So if Kemper is the one to go tonight, that will be good news for the penguins just because he hasn't been that good this year. But just to start off this segment, Pat, I just, I think the penguins are a better team than the capitals. But like earlier in the season, they just have to show it because they beat this team down in Washington to start the year.

They got to do it again in this one at home. It's definitely a better team on paper. They are definitely, they should be favored in this game, if nothing else. And I agree with you with the Capitals so far this year that if the Penguins started off the season slowly because Tristan Jari was struggling and so was Nadelcovich, it was the opposite for the Capitals. They started the season strong because they were getting good goaltending while the rest of the roster figured it out, which if you want to pick the two ways to start the season,

I would take the way the capitals started over the way the Penguins started, just because if you, if you aren't giving up goals against and everybody else is figuring it out on your roster, that's a good place to be. There's also something I want to point out here going into tonight's game about the Capitals just for tonight's game and just for this Caps team in general. Just like the Penguins, this is an older team. They played 14 games in December. Seven of them went to overtime of the shootout. It's half their games. They're playing extra hockey.

And right now, on top of that, more specifically into tonight, this is a team in Washington that hasn't won a game since December 21st. They lost in the shootout to Tampa Bay. They lost back-to-back-five-one decisions to the Rangers and then Islanders. And then they lost in the shootout to the Predators on the 30th.

So this is a cap. team that is just not looking good and they are in a serious rut. So you have a chance at home in a rivalry game to beat your biggest rival of this era and a chance to overtake them in the standings and really start to make your mark in the metropolitan division. And it's the start of such a big week for the Penguins because if they're able to win this game in regulation, that's the biggest thing with these divisional games, you'll be eight one and one in your last 10, be two points clear of them.

handing into Thursday's game at the God in Boston and the Bruins. After their hot start, they've been kind of a 500 team the last 16, 17 games. Not going to say they're going to lose that game, but I would say it's more winnable at this point than it was early in the season. Then you come home to play a really struggling Sabres team for the final time this season. This is, again, another big week for this team. But going back to the Capitals, the Penguins are 3-0-1 in their last four against the Capitals. And when you look at just their counting stats overall, Alex Ovich, only 21 points in 34 games, seven goals in 34 games.

If you saw that coming, please step forward, because I didn't, to say the least. After that, you have Dylan Strom, who, again, has been very good. I wanted the Penguins to sign him when he was a free Asian just a couple of years ago. He has been, I think, the Capitol's best player, to be honest, to season, 13 goals, 21 points. After that, though, you have John Carlson, who's always steady in the offensive zone. Tom Wilson, you know what you're going to get with him. Anthony Mantha actually has 11 goals and 30 games this year. but one of the biggest struggles on the team, Pat,

Fgeni Kuznettov, five goals, 11 points in 30 games. He is not even close to the same player that we saw just five, six years ago when the Capitals won their Stanley Cup. It's kind of a shell of his former self, to be honest, which is really sad to see because he was really fun to watch when he was in his prime, but he is definitely not that same player anymore. For the Penguins, I think, to win this game, though, continue to do what you did over the weekend,

can continue to play solid in your own zone. Let it be odd man rushes. The penalty kill needs to come forward as well because the Capitals power play, believe it or not, it's one of the three worst units in the league this year, which also should be unacceptable, considering the amount of talent they can put out there on that power play. And yes, I know they don't have Nicholas Batcham.

T.J. O'Shee is going to miss this game as well. But he still got a vetkin from his spot. Tom Wilson's a heck of a net front presence. John Carlson, excuse me, can rip bombs from the point because Netsov usually is a pretty good player, but not this year. This still should be a much better power play than what it's shown this year. I want to see the Penguins win that battle.

And then Inette, the Penguins should have the edge whoever starts. Whether they go back to Nadelcovich or whether they go to Trishanjari. I probably would go to Trishanjari for this one, but it doesn't really matter considering how good both goalies are playing right now. The Penguins have a lot of edges heading into this matchup. They do. This is an extremely winnable in a game they should win. However, we have to always add the caveat here that in a rivalry game, throw everything out because it's a cliche for a reason. These two teams have a begrudging respect for one another, but the hatred is still there.

This is a rivalry. These are two franchises that have been inextrably linked for the last 20 years. So it doesn't really matter what's going on in Penguin Land or Capitals Land when these two teams get together because it's a game that's easy to get up for if you're a players. So overall, though, the penguins to win tonight have to play like they're the better team. They have to have the confidence. They have to have the swagger. And they have to play the same system they have been playing for the better part of a month now, where they are very responsible defensively. They are very heavy on the forecheck and smart with their pinches. And like you said, finally and lastly and certainly not leastly, it doesn't matter who they go with in goal right now,

whether it's Jari or Nadelcovic, they have the advantage. And both of those guys are doing more than what we can ever ask of a penguin's goalie. All we ever ask for a penguin's goalie is keep them in a position to win. These guys are basically helping them win games at this point. And finally, Power Play goal would be really nice tonight. It would be really nice tonight to salt this team away. I feel like we wish for our Power Play goal every game now, right? I think we definitely do.

Yeah, I know. We just want to get this unit back to, to the level that we think it can be at for this season. And finally, last thing, before I forget this, same thing that you did against the Islanders with Matt Martin. After, even if you got to fight him once, ignore Tom Wilson. Yeah. You had your fight against them in the first minute against the Islanders with Matt Martin,

and then you just ignored them the rest of the game. Just let him try to get you off your game and give him the old, yeah, whatever, Tom, see you. We're going to the playoffs this year. You're not. See you. that's what Tom Wilson does people. I mean, he tries to get you off your game. He throws those big hits. He'll fight if he has to. I mean, he has plenty of times throughout his career.

But they also got to find a way to shut him down in the offensive zone because he is one of the best powerful words in the league. And I'll be curious to see who the Penguins put off there against him when they're defending against him. But I think that will do it for this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this one. Pat and I will be back with another episode for you all on Wednesday. we'll see if the penguins can make it four in row and go eight one and one in their last ten games and get two crucial points in the standings against the capitals. Honestly, man, they can replicate what they did earlier in the season in October.

They should be totally fine in this one. But again, that will do it for this one. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll talk with you all again on Wednesday.